The short answer
For most first-time investors who already have a phone and not much else, SoFi Invest hits the right balance: fast onboarding, fractional shares, retirement accounts, and the rest of your financial life in the same place. If you'd rather not think about it at all, Acorns turns spare change into investments without conscious effort. Public is the cleanest pick for readers who want context with every purchase.
How we approached this list
This isn't the full-feature brokerage ranking — that lives here. This list answers a different question: "I have ten minutes and twenty-five dollars. Which app should I download right now?" Our editors timed themselves through onboarding on every app, measured how many screens stood between download and first purchase, and judged whether the app made the right thing (small, regular, automated deposits) easier than the distracting thing (chasing today's biggest mover).
The six apps, ranked
SoFi Invest
SoFi wins because it removes friction other apps quietly add. Onboarding took six minutes and eleven seconds in our test. Fractional shares start at $5 across thousands of names. Roth IRA and traditional IRA are one tap from the home screen. And because banking and investing live in the same app, the recurring transfer from paycheck to investment account is a single-flow setup. The cost: SoFi will absolutely try to upsell you on a personal loan or a credit card. Ignore the prompts and the rest is excellent.
- ✓Six-minute onboarding flow
- ✓$5 fractional shares
- ✓Banking + investing one tap apart
- ✓Free CFP guidance at all tiers
- ✗Heavy upselling of other products
- ✗No mutual funds available
Acorns
Acorns isn't trying to be your last broker — it's trying to be your first habit. The round-up feature takes the change from every card purchase and routes it into a diversified ETF basket. After ninety days in our test, we had $147 invested without a single conscious deposit. For absolute beginners, that's a category-defining feature. Past about $5,000 in balance, the $3-$12/month subscription starts to erode returns; that's the right moment to graduate.
Public
Public's bet is that beginners want to understand what they're buying. Every ticker page leads with a one-paragraph explainer in plain English, and the in-app "Town Halls" feature lets you ask analysts questions about earnings calls. It's an explainer-first UX, which suits readers who like to know what a stock is before they own it. Free options trades and the recent Treasury bill integration broaden the surface area meaningfully.
Robinhood
Aesthetically, Robinhood remains the benchmark. Functionally, the company has spent two years quietly adding the things grown-up investors actually need — Roth IRAs, fractional bonds, an IRA contribution match. Our hesitation is editorial: the app's defaults still emphasise activity over patience, and a first-time investor's home screen shouldn't be a leaderboard of today's biggest movers. Use it with deliberate boundaries and the experience can be excellent.
Stash
Stash treats every purchase as a teaching opportunity, and the "Stock-Back" debit card — which pays you a small fractional share of the company you spent at — is genuinely clever. Where the app loses points is the subscription model: $3 to $9/month is a meaningful drag on a small balance. Best fit for readers who want hand-holding through their first six months and plan to graduate later.
Fidelity Mobile
Fidelity wins the overall brokerage ranking precisely because its app is unremarkable — and that's also why it placed sixth here. The onboarding flow is longer than SoFi's. The UI doesn't celebrate when you make your first trade. But once you're set up, this is the platform we recommend most readers consolidate to. If you're choosing one app for the next decade, not the next month, start with Fidelity.
Side-by-side app comparison
| App | Onboarding | Fractional | Monthly fee | Roth IRA | FT Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SoFi Invest | ~6 min | $5 | $0 | Yes | 88 |
| Acorns | ~8 min | Auto | $3 – $12 | Yes (Personal+) | 81 |
| Public | ~7 min | $1 | $0 | Yes | 79 |
| Robinhood | ~5 min | $1 | $0 / $5 Gold | Yes (3% match Gold) | 76 |
| Stash | ~9 min | $5 | $3 – $9 | Yes | 73 |
| Fidelity Mobile | ~12 min | $1 | $0 | Yes | 72 |
Beginner mistakes worth avoiding
Confusing the app's home screen with a recommendation
Most of these apps surface "today's biggest movers" or "trending stocks" on the home screen. That's a UI choice, not investment advice. The right early portfolio for most beginners is a broad-market index fund and nothing else — and that fund will essentially never appear in those lists, by design.
Optimising for the lowest fee instead of the best fit
Acorns charges a monthly subscription that's measurably "expensive" on a $200 balance. But for many readers, Acorns is the app that finally got them to start. The fee on $200 is small; the cost of not starting is enormous.
Switching apps based on yesterday's chart
Every app feels like it's underperforming when the market drops. None of them are. The temptation to migrate during volatility almost always destroys more value than it captures. Pick the app that fits, then commit for at least a year.